Doing Change God’s Way (Part 5)

Prioritizing Change

Introduction

• Resolutions Require Change, but it is Hard to Change.
• Series Title: Doing Change God’s Way
• Last week we discussed process driven change; today we will discuss prioritizing change.

I. We Must Set Priorities to Please God.

• Our Allegiances (Matthew 6:24, Matthew 6:33; Matthew 22:35-38)
• Our Time (Psalm 90:12; Ephesians 5:15-16)
• Our Goals (Philippians 3:7-14)

II. We Must Set Priorities to Be Successful.
III. We Must Choose Between the Urgent and the Important.
Four Types of Tasks:

• Those Tasks which are Urgent and Important
  • Do these First.
• Those Tasks which are Not Urgent, but Important
  • Spend Your Time Here.
• Those Tasks which are Urgent, but Not Important
  • Minimize These.
• Those Tasks which are Not Urgent and Not Important.
  • Eliminate These.

Conclusion

• What Should Go in Quadrant 2 (Not Urgent, but Important):
  • Your Relationship with God
  • Your Physical Health
  • Your Marriage / Family
  • Your Church Responsibilities
  • Your Work Responsibilities
  • Your Other Relationships
  • Your Dreams, Goals, Self-Improvement
• Are You Doing Change God’s Way? (Acts 22:16; 1 John 1:9)

As we seek to make changes in our life – spiritual and physical, it is important to put “first things first!”  God demands we put him first in our allegiances, time, and goals. Further, we all understand that success in any endeavor requires we set priorities. Among other things, this means we must learn to choose between the urgent and important.

I’ve reproduced this chart from my message this coming Sunday. Our activities can be categorized in each of these four quadrants.
Q4 are things we need to minimize or eliminate.
Q3 are things which should be minimized.
Q1 are things we need to do first.
Q2 is where we need to spend most of our time.
Q2 includes things such as our

• 1) relationship with God;
• 2) physical health;
• 3) marriage / family;
• 4) church responsibilities;
• 5) work responsibilities;
• 6) other relationships;
• 7) dreams, goals, self-improvement.

I’ll say more in the lesson.

I hope you will join us!  Joey